Same Names.....over and over and over...

At some point in my genealogy journey I came to a realization, and then developed a theory to go along with said realization.

           .....there were only about 10 names in use at any one time, 5 for men and 5 for women.  I am convinced there was a board of names somewhere and they chose the names for that current generation.  This went on until the mid 20th Century when lots of people bought radios and TV's and started wanting to be unique....

I first started noticing this when I was working on my Dads side of the family who were Germans from Russia aka Volga Germans.  I searched for a 'village list' at the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR) I got the list and started looking for my relatives.  There were hundreds of people listed but aside from a few outliers, these were what I found-
The men were;
Johann
Georg
Conrad
Frederich
Heinrich

And for the ladies;
Anna
Maria
Margaretha
Katarina/Catherine
Elizabeth

Within a 200 year period there were only 5 men and women who were not sharing these names!  I think I can be forgiven for thinking it was a conspiracy, ages in the making!

I would look at a family and see combinations of these names, sometimes more than once in the same family.  Corresponding with other Volga German family trackers I found that it was common to use the name of a child that had died on the next child born of the appropriate gender.  That can get real confusing, I have seen a name used for 3 different children in the same family with only the youngest living beyond childhood.  There were families with all of the children of each gender having the same first names with different middle names, reminding me of George Foreman!

Thinking this was just some German aberration, I moved on to my mothers side of the family.  there had been some work done on this side before by a cousin, so I was trying to add to what she had, working on the early Americans.  John, James, William, Henry, Samuel...I'm not kidding!  The ladies  were the same - Sarah, Elizabeth, Mary, Jane, Catherine.  This became something of a joke when I shared with my family.

Then I noticed other naming trends.  Desperate souls trying to break out of the mold.  In the time of the "Great Awakening" (1730 - 1777) everyone had a biblical name, Sarah Hannah, Matthew, Jonathon, Solomon, Abraham and Moses.  Some were even more obscure - Abiathar; yes it's in the Bible.  In the deep south, in my husbands family there was a well educated family with money, a whole generation of cousins named Flavius, Octavius and Maximus!  The Fathers/brothers were all doctors and obviously studied Greek and Latin. (I always wondered what their wives thought!)

The oddball naming conventions taught me some lessons:
- Check the birth dates  - we have all seen the family tree online that has the mother born after the child.
- If there are Biblical names I look for a local church to see if there are records.
- As with the roman names, something unusual warrants closer examination.
- When I find a trend, I check to see if it is a cultural thing or a family thing.

Of course we have gotten past these sorts of names and trends - My brother and I for instance are Kathryn (Catherine) and Shawn (John).......ahem!

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, trying this.

I have joined Amy Johnson Crow's '52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge' nearly in the middle, but I am determined to try and keep up now. This weeks' prompt is 'Going to the Chapel'.

The song that lent it's title to this weeks prompt is a happy one - not one of those 'lost love' songs. It made me think of how fortunate I was to be surrounded by happy marriages in my childhood, which made me think about all the people I knew who made it to a 50 year anniversary. Voila – my story!

Starting with the most recent generation, my husband and I both have parents who made it to 50 and a little beyond before death parted them.

My in-laws - Mel and Charline (Herring) Gates met at his parents market in Los Angeles. She was hired on when the boys went to war, and when Mel got home a friendship developed. He was going to school after serving in the Army in WWII. They started dating in 1946, got engaged and got married in 1949, they were engaged for a little over 2 years, during which time they renovated/built a home in Chatsworth Canyon together. They had two children, a boy and a girl and were happily maried until Charlines death in 2002. Just over 53 years

(l-r) Niel and Irma, Me and Hubby, Charline and Mel

My parents - Niel and Irma (Medlin) Kiehn on the other hand had their first date on Valentines Day 1955, got engaged over spring break, and married on July 30^th 1955. Just in case your mind goes there, the first child (me) didn't come along until 15 months later. They lived in married student housing until Niel graduated from Westmar College (now the home of Blue Bunny ice cream) Irma graduated from High School at 16 and was a senior when they met. Although Niel was two years older he had spent 4 years in the Air Force during the Korean conflict and had a couple of years to go. They also had a boy and a girl and they were happily married until Niel's death in 2008. Just over 53 years.

My paternal grandparents - Fred and Lottie (Frick) Kiehn were both first generation Americans of Volga German stock. They met and married in Loveland Colorado. They arranged the ceremony so that they were married and said “I Do” at 12:01 am on January 1, 1929. They raised 2 boys on a farm outside of Berthoud Colorado and were happily married until 1992 When Fred passed away. They were married 63 ½ years.

 

My maternal grandparents - George and Nellie

(Quint) Medlin married April 8, 1931, they had 3 girls and farmed over 600 acres outside of Unionville MO. George was a self taught geologist and wildcat oil driller as well and they managed to travel quite a lot. Nellie lived the longest of all of these as a widow living until shortly after her 102 ^nd birthday. She mowed her own lawn until she was 98 when her health began to fail. She and George were married for a little over 53 years.

Maternal Grandmother's parents – Walter and Charlotte (Hamilton) Quint were both born and raised in the northeast corner of Missouri, near the town of Unionville. They farmed and raised cattle and children – 9 in all, one was a stillborn twin, one died at 47 in an accident, the rest all lived to be at least 70, and most older. Married in February of 1896 Walter and Charlotte were married until Charlottes death in 1947. Just over 51 years.

Paternal Grandmothers parents – George and Anna (Crystal) Frick were both born in Russia, to Volga-German parents. They married in 1905 and immigrated to America in 1906, they raised 10 children and were married until Anna's death in 1960. A total of 55 years. (Somewhere there are photos of them but I have not found the relative that might have them yet.)

There were more, farther back, I was surprised at how many. These, though, are the family members I knew well or at least met even if I was small. I had never paid attention to the number of years each had been married and did not realize that only one couple made it past 55 years, 3 couples got to 53 years, and being born in the old country didn't shorten the lifespan of my couple born in Russia. They did all have in common working hard!

This was fun!